Help I can't understand how tactics work in FMM

[Farisi]

This may sound stupid but as the title says, I can't understand how tactics work in FMM. I've been playing maybe since 2016 but I still can't get my own tactics to work. I have been reading many guides here but I still don't understand the logic behind it.

Whenever I think I've made a pretty decent tactic for my team.. BOOM! 3-0 loss, 30% possession or 1-0 loss with my team not creating anything.

So I hope you can help me pinpoint whether there is something wrong with this tactic I came up with. I really appreciate your help and also sorry for asking a lot from you guys!

[DanEnglish]

Great question!

Can you send us screenshots of the league table + (crucially) your completed results / fixtures pages - as we can see you completed the first season in Germany’s 3rd league … this will help us sense check a few thoughts I have 👍 

[Farisi]

9 hours ago, DanEnglish said:

Great question!

Can you send us screenshots of the league table + (crucially) your completed results / fixtures pages - as we can see you completed the first season in Germany’s 3rd league … this will help us sense check a few thoughts I have 👍 

Thank you Dan!

I'm sorry but I haven't been using this tactic for the whole season. This is the tactic I was using:

Results:

 

This tactic does give me a really good winning run, bringing the team to a solid finish. But matches always end with 1-0s and this bothers me alot so I am trying to change it with something more aggresive.

Results with the new system are the last 4 matches, starting with 0-1 win against Osnabruck.

League table:

Edited November 14, 2022 by Farisi
Wrong pics!

[DanEnglish]

Thanks for the extra info:

Non-Tactical Comments:

Spoiler

• Firstly, your original Board expectations are "mid-table", so you are not expected to beat everyone all the time! Finishing 7th in season one is therefore quite impressive.
• Secondly, your squad still seem to be gelling together - with only 6 or 7 relationships amongst your first team members. You'd expect them to get better together as this improves - right?
• Thirdly, it seems you've got good results vs both the sides above and below you in the table. In the 2 fixture screenshots you shared (one was duplicated!) - you only lost 3 + drew 4, not bad.
• Lastly, your defence seems good, but yes you're not scoring enough goals - on average only a little more than 1.0 goals/game (!).

Tactical Comments:

• Opposition - half the other 3rd division teams are playing a 4231 DM formation (~9 of 19 teams), while another 4-5 teams play a 442 flat formation. So typically you need to break down a back 4 with no opposition DMC.

Tactical Suggestions:

Main Question - how do you want to score? ... If you want more through balls to your pacey forwards, then you want to turn that on + pull back your defensive line / press. If you want more crosses to your 14 aerial ST, then you'll want more wide roles (wingers / wing backs) ... What is it that you want?

Some detailed ideas in the spoiler:

Spoiler

• Defensive Line - you've got a 'high' line, but two very pacey attackers. May be worth testing a 'normal' line, so your two pacey attackers have more space to run into (especially if you turn on 'through balls').
• Pressing - is your press working? You have a high line, but your attackers' teamwork is pretty low. If it's not working, then you may want to move this down to 'own half' (to pull back, giving your pacey attackers more space up front to run into)
• Aerial - how many headers is your ST winning? His 14 aerial is similar (+ 8 strength is weaker) to the average opposition DC in this league, so he probably won't be winning many headers, nor scoring many headed chances - from crosses from your left-sided WB and/or right-sided IW.

Edited November 15, 2022 by DanEnglish

[Farisi]

I agree that the team has done very well this season but I just don't feel comfortable with my tactic. As you said, we defended well but are tragically bad at scoring. Maybe I should keep playing 4-1-2-2-1 against stronger teams?

8 hours ago, DanEnglish said:

Tactical Comments:

• Opposition - half the other 3rd division teams are playing a 4231 DM formation (~9 of 19 teams), while another 4-5 teams play a 442 flat formation. So typically you need to break down a back 4 with no opposition DMC

Now this I have a question for. Sorry if this sounds stupid.. but what do I do with this info? Does it mean I should focus more centrally and create more plays from there? If let's say they play with DMC should I be worried about the lack of space in the central area and maybe try to create from the wings?

8 hours ago, DanEnglish said:

Tactical Suggestions:

Main Question - how do you want to score? ... If you want more through balls to your pacey forwards, then you want to turn that on + pull back your defensive line / press. If you want more crosses to your 14 aerial ST, then you'll want more wide roles (wingers / wing backs) ... What is it that you want?

Since none of my strikers are physically dominant, I mainly want my midfield creators to create plays for my IF and AF with LWB and IW giving width, does that make sense?

I was worried that the through balls instruction will hinder us since we don't have the most creative players, but very good passers.

But just now I decided to test the 4-2-3-1 with adjustments made based on your ideas and we completely dominated a mid-table(I think?) Ligue 2 team!

I really can't believe my eyes, we are really playing actual football.. I only adjusted the defensive line, pressing, through ball instruction, and changing the tempo to normal but they made a huge difference it seems. I'll give this system a go for the next season. Curious question, is it possible to create from the wing (maybe two wingers) even if my striker can't win aerials?

Thanks a lot Dan!

Edited November 15, 2022 by Farisi

[DanEnglish]

11 minutes ago, Farisi said:

Curious question, is it possible to create from the wing (maybe two wingers) even if my striker can't win aerials?

I’ll reply to the rest of your post later - but on this specific point, I’ve only been able to consistently score from crosses when my striker is aerially dominant. 

I watch extended highlights and always look at the match stats. Even with Ronaldo at Man. United, with his (mid-season) 16 aerial + 14/15 strength, he isn’t aerially dominant vs other Premier League center backs. Maybe I can get him to score from headed cross every other game, but it’s from 20-30 crosses each game, and the result is low scoring, as I’m so focused on putting in as many decent crosses as possible to him. Not good.

Others may have had success with an aerially non-dominant striker, but I haven’t.

PS. - Edit - Just saw your match stats. 15 attempted crosses. 0 successful 😮 your striker had 4 attempted headers. 0 successful

Edited November 15, 2022 by DanEnglish

[hhooo]

2 hours ago, DanEnglish said:

I’ll reply to the rest of your post later - but on this specific point, I’ve only been able to consistently score from crosses when my striker is aerially dominant. 

I watch extended highlights and always look at the match stats. Even with Ronaldo at Man. United, with his (mid-season) 16 aerial + 14/15 strength, he isn’t aerially dominant vs other Premier League center backs. Maybe I can get him to score from headed cross every other game, but it’s from 20-30 crosses each game, and the result is low scoring, as I’m so focused on putting in as many decent crosses as possible to him. Not good.

Others may have had success with an aerially non-dominant striker, but I haven’t.

PS. - Edit - Just saw your match stats. 15 attempted crosses. 0 successful 😮 your striker had 4 attempted headers. 0 successful

Last year I was able to get players with low aerial but good movement to score from inswinging crosses from players like IWBs fairly often. Traditional footed out swingers only worked with Aerial. 

 

This year, I can't get inverted players to cross at all 😢

[P.Rahul]

Use 2 motivational coaches

Or 2 attacking coaches

... and use 

2 BBM with AM in the middle...

play through ball games 

38 goals in 38 games is very low scoring rate ... 

ur tactics only works when u use good coaches with natural aptitude... 

If u want to play through ball games us 2 motivational coaches

And if u want wide play than use 2 attacking coaches ..

And last train ur players on players primary role attributes.